Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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This invention relates to a torch which i6 used for
the oxy c~utting of metal.
The usual o~y cu~ting torch which is pre~ently emp~oyed
5. in indu~ry utilises a nozzle having a ce~tral orifice
through which oxyqen passes, surrounded by a first xo~ of
orifices through which a combustible mixture of oxygen and
acetylene gas flows, i~self still further surrounded by a
further row 9f outer apertures which will contain further
10. oxygen. t~he combustible gase~ are mixed internally within
~ the torch with much turbulence to assure thorough mixing,
¦ and this turbulent gas issues in small parallelj~ts. This
~ co-operates with a turbulent oxygen stxeam which issues
i from a central oxygen jet within the combustible gas flame,
15. and when excess oxygen is present, metal o be cut is
burned.
One o$ the characteristlcs of this type of cutting
torch is the presence of very turbulent gas at the cutting
zone, this resulting in a rough cut surface and also in
1 20~ much burning of the parent metal, but this latter feature
¦ is most undesirable since quite often it is important tha~
~he edge should be as clean as possibl~.
In Au~tralian Patent 460,066, the applicant herein
disclosed a welding torch attachment having i~ mixing
25. chamber length at least eight ~imes its diameter, and that
,
~ ~ C~r~ ~
diameter at least ~hree times the nozzle aperture diameter.
The attachment described in that Patent has proved commer-
cially successful, mainly for the reason that the flame
burns non-turbulent gases, resulting in a high temperature
over a smaller area. This phenomenon has made it possible
to weld metals which are not otherwise readily weldable.
One object of this invention is to provide impro-
vements which will reduce the burning of the parent metal
in an o~y cutting torch, and to take advantage of the high
temperature concentrated heat available ~rom the burning of
non-turbulent gases.
In this invention, oxygen and acetylene are mixed
in a mixing chamber of relatively large cross-sectional
area, and are then passed through an elongate passage where
they develop stream lines of flow, the mixture then passing
through a plurality of elongate nozzle apertures arranged
in a circular pattern around a central oxygen aperture in
the nozzle, the nozzle apertures converging in a downstream
direction such that their projections all intersect the
projection of the central oxygen aperture at a single con-
vergence point.
~ ore specifically, the invention consists of an
oxy cutting torch having a body, oxygen an~ acetylene ~it-
tings ixed with respect to the body and a nozzle on the
downstream end of the body, an end member at the upstrearn
end o the body, said oxygen fitting being on said end
member, a tube extending frorn said end member through the
body to said nozzle and defining a central passage through
which oxygen passes when the torch is in use, a spacer
member within the bod~ between said end member and said
nozzle, the spacer member surrounding said tube and
defining therebetween an annular elongate passage which
extends part way through the end member and the body and
through which oxygen and acetylene pass, said central
passage opening into a central oxygen emitting aperture in
the nozzle, said elongate passage opening into a plurality
of elongate combustible gas emitting apertures in the
nozzle, said combustible gas emitting apertures converging
in a downstream direction such that the projections of
their central axes all intersect the projection of the
central axis of the central oxygen emitting aperture at a
single covergence point.
By utilising this arrangement, the heat for
cutting is far more concentrated than with a turbulent type
flame, and in one example 500 mm of mild steel 12 mm thick
was cut in a period of 1 minute, had a very clean cut sur-
face, and sharp edges both on top and below the plate.
The burning was so slight that the slag was easily removed,
and the heat imparted to the plate was much less than with
prior art torches. Gas usage was also considerably less,
and in the example referred to above, the cut was achieved
with 2 cubic feet o~ acetylene gas at 2 p.s.i. (14 kPa)
c~mpared with gas usage in a prior art cutting torch of 10
cubic feet at 15 p.s.i., while the oxygen usage was 18
cubic feet of gas at 20 p.s.i~ (140 kPa) compared with
prior art torch requirements of 80 cubic feet of gas at
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6i5~
s.
40 p.s.i. Thus, even thou~h cutting ~peed was fast~ gas
consumption was le~s than one quarter of the consumption
in a turbule~t flame type of oxy cu~ting ~orch.
Another advantage w~ich is noted with the arrangement
5. described above was ~hat there was ~o much le~ cut ing
oxygen in ~he combu~tible mix~ure ~hat on e ~ ~eutral
flame was established, the addi~ion of the cu~ mg oxygen
was found to make only a trivial difference to t~e gas
ba].ance of that flame~ This in turn had the additional
10. advantage that the metal was evenly hea~ed without excessive
oxygen being applied to the s~rface, and the car~on dioxide
and wa~er vapour rel~ased upon combustion provided an
enveloping gas surface which appeared to be responsible
for the inhibition of excessive oxidation excepting at the
15. location of the cut itself.
~n embodiment of ~he invention i8 des~ribed hereunder
in some detail with reference to, and is illustrated in,
the acco~panying dxawings, in which
20. Fig. 1 is a central section through a torch, and
Fig. 2 is a similar section but fra~mentary and drawn
to an enlarged scale to m~re clearly show details of shape.
In this embodiment an oxy cutting torch 10 ~omprises
an outer body llo onto the downstream end of which is
25. ~crewed a retaining nut 12, the retaining nut retaining a
6.
cutting nozzle 13 in firm e~gagement with the end of the
body ll. The downstream end of the body 11 is provided
with two annular ridges which are spaced apart to define
an annular groove 18 into which a number of apertures 19
5. open, the apertures 19 being relatively large diameter
upstream openings which open into relatively small diameter
nozzle apertures 20 from which combustible gas mixtures
axe emitted. The body is also provided with an 1nner
annular groove, the inner annular grosve being of such
10. shape and size that its walls compress an "O" ring 21
about the outer surface of a parallel wall tube 22 which
defines a central passage which extends through the centre
of the body 11 and into the centre of the nozzle 13.
The central tube 22 is retained in place by an
15. externally threaded end member 24 which threadably engages
an internal thread within the body 11~ entering the body
from the upstream end, opposite the nozæle 130 A spacer
member 25 abuts the end member 24, and is provided with a
projection 26 at its downstream end which neatly engages
20~ in a complementary recess in the body 11, restraining flow
o~ gas rearwardly past the thread. Although not shown
herein, the spacer member 25 can thr~adably engage body 11.
It has a central aperture 27 passiny through it which is
of larger diameter than the central tube 22 to define there-
25. wit~ an annular space which perfoxms the functivn of a
7.
passage for the flow and mixing of the combus~ible gases.The upstream end of the spacer member 25 is provided with
a counter-bore portion 28 of the central aperture 27~ and
this accepts a forwardly tapered hollow spigot 29 of the
5. threaded end member 24. This spigot 29 and the walls of
the counter-bore portion 2~ define between them an inter-
mediate annular space 30 which increases in cross-~ectional
area in a downstxeam direction~ and which accepts acetylene
gas part way along its length through a plurality of
10. radially extending small apertures 32 through the annular
upstxeam end of the spacer member 25~ from the acetylene
inlet fitting 33.
The spigot 29 is hollow and the central aperture
through the spigot is also of larger diameter than the
15- central tube so that an inner annular space 35 extends to
the annular space between tube 22 and the wall of aperture
27. There is a reduced diameter tail 36 on the spacer
member 25 which surrounds the spigot, and provides a third
and outer concentric annular space 37 through which
20- acetylene flows from the fitting 33 to the apertures 32~
The body 11 is provided with an outwardly extending
threaded hose fitting 40 to which an oxygen hose can be
attached, and intermediate its ends it has a hexagonal
portion 41 to which a spanner may be applied. Inwardly of
25- the hexagonal portion is a threaded portion 42 which engages
the threaded end of the body 11, and the threaded portion
is interrupted part way along its length by an annular
groove 43 having apertures 44 extending radially inwardly
therefrom to the inner annular space 35. The inner
5, annular space 35 however terminates in a coaxial threaded
hos~ fitting 46, which is a second oxygen fitting, and
the upstream end of the tube 22 is sealed to khe fitting.
Oxygen which is introduced from the fitting 40 through
the radial apertures 44 in the end member 24 and into the
10. inner annular space 35 moves in a generally non-turbulent
manner through the inner annular space 35 towards the
no~zle 13. Acetylene is entrained into the oxygen stream~
passing from fitting 33, through outer annular spa~e 37 and
apertures 32, through the intermediate annular space 30,
15. past the end of spigot 29, and into the downstream annular
space of counter-bore 28 into the central aperture 27
surrounding the tube 22. At the downstream end of the tube,
the tube is sealed by the "O" ring 21 in the annular space
at the nozzle end of the body ll, but apertures 48 extend
~0~ outwardly bo~h in a longitudinal and in a radial direction
to terminate in the outer downstream annular groove 18 at
the end of the body 11, and these are in gas flow ~ommun-
ication with the coaxial apertures 19 and 20, which surround
the oxygen emikting aperture 50, and which are inclined in
25. the nozzle and directed ~owards one another so tha the
9.
projection of these apertures terminate in a convergence
point "C" external of the nozzle. Since each of these
apertur~s comprises a rela~ively large diameter portion
at its upstream end and a long relatively smaller diameter
5. portion at its downstream end, it will emit a non~turbulent
flow from t~e nozzle 13. The central oxygen emitting
aperture 50 of the nozzle 13 is coaxial with the central
axis of the tube, extends from a conical end wall 51 in
the nozzle to the outer end of the nozzle. The cone angle
10. of the wall 51 is between 150 degrees and 170 degrees, it
being found that this cone angle interferes only to a very
small degree with the generally non-turbulent flow of the
oxygen through the central tube. The tube 22, and the
elongate passage defined between it and the walls of
lS. aperture 27, are both long with respect to cross-sectional
area, such that gas flow therein is s~eamlined. The nozzle
aper~ures 20, and the central oxygen em.itting aperture 50,
are also long for the same reason, .in each case the length
exceeding three hundred times the diameter. This confi.g-
~0. uration greatly assists in ensuring that the emitted gasesare non~turbulent tProvided pressure is low).
Separat~ contxols tnot shown3 are provided for the
flame oxygen, the cutting oxygen, and the acetylene, and
the arrangement is such that a neutral flame can be first
Z5. established by careful adjustment of the flame oxygen and
10. ~Z~ g
acetylene controls, and cutting oxygen can be introduced
with very little interference with the mixture in the flame
jets. That is, it is possible to quite easily arrange or
the gas surrounding the heater zone to be quite neutral
5. such that it does not excessively oxidize the surface of
the metal being cut.
Owing to the excellent combustion conditions provided
by this torch, and to the relatively non--~urbulent flow of
both the flame gases and the cutting oxygen, it is possible
10. for the cutting oxygen outlet aperture to be very small in
diameter (in this embodiment about 0.050 inches or 1.1 mml
and this provides very small diameter and highly concen-
trated heat for cutting purposesO
